Monday, 30 September 2013

My personal food journey...

I have been on an incredible food journey over the past 5 years, challenging myself to constantly try new things and test my cooking skills to the max. I love the simple things in life; simple pleasures such as watching friends and family enjoy my food and catering to their differing tastes. Our shopping habits have changed over time too; from Supermarkets, to focusing on independent retailers and local markets, to discovering the ease of online shopping (as I currently have an injury that has kept me at home a lot).

As a child I was a vegetarian for a few years, mainly as a result of my concern for the welfare of animals. I like to think that over the years my husband and I have continued to be conscientious eaters spurred on by our environmental, social and ethical awareness.

Now is the time to start a new chapter. We recently watched an inspiring documentary “Forks over Knives”* which started the cogs turning;

“Let food be thy medicine” – Hippocrates.

The amount of meat we now consume in the Western world is unnatural. Our bodies do not need the high doses of meat protein, fats and sugars contained in the highly processed foods being eaten daily. Walk around any supermarket and you will see wall-to-wall processed foods and a very low percentage of whole, plant-based food.

As a result we have decided to embark on a Meat-free and Dairy-free Diet. The health benefits of which are plentiful. We will still eat occasional fish and seafood but the majority of the diet will be essentially vegan.

As some of you will be aware my previous food blog was called “Cheesus Loves Me”, so I have decided to wipe the slate clean and start a new blog here based on the principles of our new diet. I would like to help inspire others, but am by no means preaching. I just want to have a bit of fun showing how wonderful meat-and-dairy-free meals can be, hope that you will try them out and maybe think about the possibility of taking a few meat-free days each week. You can follow me @VChloeK on Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest and please feel free to comment and/or ask any questions.

* I highly recommend watching the “Forks over Knives” documentary and others like it, such as “Food Inc.”,“Food Matters”, "Vegucated" and "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead".